Last month at Cinematexas, Eddo Stern unveiled Darkgame (prototype), a
videogame installation in which two participants, playing against each
other, maneuver avatars around a two-dimensional plane, their movements
projected against the gallery wall. What's unusual about this scenario is
that the experience for both parties involves elements of sensory
deprivation. One person is completely "blind," unable to view the main
interface and responding only to nonvisual cues: the vibrations of a headset
Stern designed to correspond with the location of the opposing player, and
related audio signals. And while the other character is able to see the
action play out in real time, the field of play becomes obscured when he or
she is hit and small patches of gray begin to expand. Sure to open up new
avenues for gaming, it's an education of the senses and a truly heady mod.

Well known for his work on such projects as Tekken Torture Tournament, where
gamers endured electric shocks relative to the injuries of their onscreen
fighters, and Waco Resurrection, in which players assume the role of David
Koresh as government authorities advance on the Branch Davidian compound,
Stern's art challenges and expands not only our relationships with
videogames, but also the social and political histories from which they
spring. In this interview, Thomas Beard speaks with Stern about his latest
work, as well as MIDIs, memes, and the act of straddling the worlds of art,
industry, and internet culture.

Jeff Howe coined the term 'crowdsourcing' to refer to 'tapping the latent talent of the crowd,' an act that is not exactly standard-issue collaboration, nor is it blatant exploitation. Curator Andrea Grover's forthcoming exhibition, Phantom Captain: Art and Crowdsourcing, seeks to present the state of crowdsourcing as it exists on the radar of the art world and in art production. If this makes you think of Spencer Tunick's photographs of nudes-en-masse, you're missing the point. Including such works as Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's wonderful website, LearningToLoveYouMore.com, Grover's exhibition--opening Wednesday, October 18 at New York's Apex Art--presents work as varied as an update of the 1977 MoMA Artist's Cookbook, novelist Davy Rothbart's voyeuristic publication Found, a collaborative web-based sketch book, and thousands of poorly-drawn sheep. Best exemplified by last week's 1.6 billion-dollar deal between YouTube and Google, the relationship between individual entities (companies or artists) and crowds is a tricky one, as compensation (cash, exhibition opportunities, publishing deals, etc) is still available only to a few at the top. Phantom Captain opens new doors. - Sara Greenberger Rafferty

Jeff Howe coined the term 'crowdsourcing' to refer to 'tapping the latent talent of the crowd,' an act that is not exactly standard-issue collaboration, nor is it blatant exploitation. Curator Andrea Grover's forthcoming exhibition, Phantom Captain: Art and Crowdsourcing, seeks to present the state of crowdsourcing as it exists on the radar of the art world and in art production. If this makes you think of Spencer Tunick's photographs of nudes-en-masse, you're missing the point. Including such works as Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's wonderful website, LearningToLoveYouMore.com, Grover's exhibition--opening Wednesday, October 18 at New York's Apex Art--presents work as varied as an update of the 1977 MoMA Artist's Cookbook, novelist Davy Rothbart's voyeuristic publication Found, a collaborative web-based sketch book, and thousands of poorly-drawn sheep. Best exemplified by last week's 1.6 billion-dollar deal between YouTube and Google, the relationship between individual entities (companies or artists) and crowds is a tricky one, as compensation (cash, exhibition opportunities, publishing deals, etc) is still available only to a few at the top. Phantom Captain opens new doors. - Sara Greenberger Rafferty

By typing on the keyboard of the custom robotic typewriter, you are able to "chat" with the Internet while the background application searches online resources for response. There's not screen, the typewriter automatically prints out the resulting text or ASCII art on a paper roll for you to view or keep. Be it whimsical, intelligent or simply irrelevant, the typed words of the Internet reveal a fragment of truth regarding itself.

The existence of an invisible entity is suggested by the noise of the typing and flowing responses spit out from the typewriter.

Networked Games

Paul Johnson's work makes use of nonlinear narratives produced by networked video game systems. I design the physical game console and game in tandem. There is usually an operational relationship between the design of the console and the content of the game. I became interested in a joint project with Sunny Kim because notions of constructed realities and dislocation, which run throughout her work, are extremely relevant to many of the issues I confront when developing a video game system. My networked game systems evolve over time. Throughout this process, some of the control of the artist is surrendered to the game system. The premise of Budaechigae is to examine historical mechanisms that inform a relationship between Sunny and myself, and between our respective countries. This relationship is manifested in the Budaechigae video game system and "played out."

One of the pioneering festivals of this kind both in Asia and internationally, Microwave International Media Arts Festival will be held in Hong Kong from Nov 4th to 15th. The festival is approaching its 10th anniversary. The theme of this year is "Animatronica", exploring the nature of animated images through the form of animation and surveillance devices. Prominent artists from all over the world are invited to present their brilliant artworks to the public throughout various programs, i.e. the keynote conference and main exhibition. Inevitably, they are going to share how they merge technology and arts into their works.

<p>The exhibition of "Animatronica"will be constructed as a technological laboratory where the public is invited to engage, participate and experiment. Featuring international media artists, including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Canada), Max Kazemzadeh (USA), Philip Worthington (UK), Camille Utterback (USA), Alvaro Cassinelli (Uruguay), Jin-Yo Mok (Korea) and more. With all these innovative artworks installed, viewers are encouraged to explore the different themes of each interactively. </p>

Are you aware of how much surveillance and monitoring devices around you nowadays? But will they look less malice as they are now? The renowned artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is going to present it with a different note. His artwork "Surface Tension", focusing on the motion of the passer-by, having the interactive modules made of animated photos which react to the movements of the public through a video-based tracking system. Another side of the camera-capturing world is about to unleash. Remember how we cast shadows over the wall by hands when we were kids? Sharing the similar idea, Philip Worthington's "Shadow Monster" will show us how to turn a shadow ...

Imagine a physical sculptural version of a dynamical system in 3d space or a complex particle simulation, the kind that appears as a floating gas vapour. Using a technique called ‘chromastrobic light’ Paul Friedlander conjures spectacular light sculptures that are the ultimate incarnation of the late 60’s light-show aesthetic bought into the now. They also sit nicely in the lineage of waveform art - everything from early artist experiments with oscilloscopes – Laposky, Whitney, Bute et al to recent computational art concerning attractors, particles and Bezier acrobatics.

The work ‘Dark Matter’ appears as a 3 dimensional iridescent waveform, the result of chromastrobic light projected onto a rapidly spinning rope reflected off a Mylar mirror (flexible mirror surface). Because the rope spins at up to 600 rpm the human eye perceives a three dimensional multicoloured image. It doesn’t stop there - spectators can interact with the piece via two high frequency sound beams which alter the speed of the rope’s vibrations and the colour of the light.

Freidlander’s most recent installation, Timeless Universe concerns itself with the alternative cosmological ideas of English physicist Julian Barbour. 10 different kinetic pieces are arranged in groups illuminated by projections showing images from 3 different computers all generating real-time animations that modify, modulate and transform the chosen subject matter.

Its comes as no surprise that Friedlander was an acolyte of the original psychedelic light shows scene the first time round - he built his first light sculptures while a physics student at the University of Sussex before graduating in 1972. via dataisnature